"The Art of Traveling: Student Travel Journals from the 2008 Art History Foreign Study Program," a collaboration between the art history department, the Hood Museum of Art, the Office of Off-Campus Programs and Sherman Art Library, is yet another reminder of what sets Dartmouth's forgiegn study progams apart from similar programs at other colleges.
Located in the lobby of Carpenter Hall, the exhibit presents testimonials from the personal journals of 13 Dartmouth students created during the art history FSP in Italy last spring.
The journals collected in this informal presentation transport the viewer to Rome and trace the program's side-trips across Italy to cities such asVenice and Florence.
"The assignment is based on the tradition of writing travel journals by the Grand-Tour travelers -- showing what they encounter, their own experiences immersing themselves in culture," notes professor Angela Rosenthal, who leads the art history FSP and organized the exhibit.
The journals became a way for students to record their personal observations, reactions and sketches of Italian art and architecture.
The various photographs, ticket stubs and restaurant napkins sandwiched between the journals' pages document the daily pleasures of the lifestyle that Dartmouth students assume while studying abroad.
These mementos are set against written entries, assignments and on-site sketches.
The journal entries range in topic from the rituals of the Catholic Church to favorite flavors of gelato. By attempting to record both the intellectual questions that arose in their courses and the aspects of Roman culture that they witnessed in their free time, the students convey a well-rounded portrait of their time in the Eternal City.
Meghan McDavid '10, who assisted in selecting the journals and curating the show, explained that recording thoughts along with the sketches "made [her] develop a critical eye which helped with description."
Keeping a journal forced the students to engage critically and emotionally with the FSP experience.
Sketches of ancient architecture on one page complement a sketch based on an surrealist Magritte painting on the next.
Caroline Cima '10, who traveled to Rome with the art history FSP and assisted Rosenthal in preparing the display, reflected on the variety of influences in her own journal, noting that Rome "is marked by various such paradoxes such as the tension between development and preservation, the modern and the ancient, the secular and the religious."
Some sketches stand out for their artistic quality such as the captivating drawings of Caravaggio's "Martyrdom of St. Matthew" by Kimia Shahi '09, shown above.
Rosenthal conceived of the public journal display only after the students had returned from abroad. The journals were written under the assumption they would be received by a limited audience.
"Making students write travel journals is difficult for them at first, but they will have something for life," Rosenthal explained.
This free exhibition will be on display until Dec. 3 in the lobby of Carpenter Hall.
